MUMBAI: Even as Reliance Industries and Mukesh Ambani cruise on their path to acquire control of the Network18 group, promoter and founder Raghav Bahl – along with his wife Ritu Kapur – sent out an email to the entire staff of the group explaining their position and their departure from the enterprise they built up.

The email is pretty candid and begins with them stating that “yesterday, Ritu and I effectively ended our entrepreneurial leadership of N18 by agreeing to exit our shareholding (although I would be around to ensure a smooth transition).”

Bahl exudes confidence in Mukesh Ambani and RIL as the potential owners of the Network18 group. “Believe us, the Group is in terrific hands. Mr Ambani is a visionary and truly good human being. And we have no doubt that Network18 would soar into the "cloud" under this dispensation. All of you have very good cause to be excited and optimistic about the future,” he says in the email.

The husband wife team then go on to thank the thousands of team mates “whose collective tejasvi karma has buoyed N18 to where it is today. Our heartfelt gratitude towards all of them! (We would like to make a special mention of our very own Vandana, who was the first manager-cum-driver-cum-lights"man" of TV18 in the early 90s).” (The reference is to his sister Vandana Mallick who was like the rock of gibraltar for Bahl through his career and who resigned from the group earlier in the day today).

They end by asking the entire employees of the Network18 group to “wish us well as we embark on our next quest - we are, as usual, utterly positive about the future. God bless you, and God bless Network18.”